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Color lines: "Passing" and its implications for literary subjectivity in Richard Wright and Boris Vian
Title
Color lines: "Passing" and its implications for literary subjectivity in Richard Wright and Boris Vian.
Creator
Guillerm, Celine, Florida Atlantic University, Munson, Marcella L.
Abstract/Description
If mid-twentieth-century African-American authors based discussions of race in America on the theories of prominent Franco-African writers, African-American writers such as Richard Wright were also highly influential in discussions of race in the French literary context. Wright's novel Native Son focuses on protagonist Bigger Thomas, a young black man who accidentally commits murder. After realizing how the white community has interpreted his act, Bigger tries without success to break free of...
Show moreIf mid-twentieth-century African-American authors based discussions of race in America on the theories of prominent Franco-African writers, African-American writers such as Richard Wright were also highly influential in discussions of race in the French literary context. Wright's novel Native Son focuses on protagonist Bigger Thomas, a young black man who accidentally commits murder. After realizing how the white community has interpreted his act, Bigger tries without success to break free of "double consciousness," or fragmented subjectivity, first articulated by W. E. B. DuBois. Boris Vian's text J'irai cracher sur vos tombes problematizes Wright's literary analysis of race through protagonist Lee Anderson, an explicit literary reworking of Bigger. Lee, in deliberately passing as white in order to murder two women, displays a more deliberate subjectivity. The act of passing erodes the legal foundation of black segregation and highlights a more active subjectivity, yet it also displays the limitations encoded in that act.
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Date Issued
2005
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13262
Subject Headings
Racially mixed people--United States., African Americans--Race identity., African Americans in literature., Passing (Identity) in literature., Group identity in literature., Vian, Boris,--1920-1959.--J'irai cracker sur vos tombes., Wright, Richard,--1908-1960.--Native son.
Format
Document (PDF)
A Feminist Cultural Study of Identity, Hair Loss, and Chemotherapy
Title
A Feminist Cultural Study of Identity, Hair Loss, and Chemotherapy.
Creator
Guillerm, Celine, Scodari, Christine, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Abstract/Description
The main aim of this dissertation is to discuss the way women negotiate the cultural meaning of hair loss, alopecia, as a result of undergoing chemotherapy, and to understand, accordingly, how cancer's cultural effects regarding women can be deeply different from those of men. Very few studies have been done about the cultural impact and resonance of alopecia. It is often regarded as "secondary" to other effects of chemotherapy. Because, in many cultures, head hair for women expresses or...
Show moreThe main aim of this dissertation is to discuss the way women negotiate the cultural meaning of hair loss, alopecia, as a result of undergoing chemotherapy, and to understand, accordingly, how cancer's cultural effects regarding women can be deeply different from those of men. Very few studies have been done about the cultural impact and resonance of alopecia. It is often regarded as "secondary" to other effects of chemotherapy. Because, in many cultures, head hair for women expresses or manifests attractiveness and power, to be bald is to be deprived of the ability to fit into society, whether in the public or private sphere. The study examines the representation of such women in the media, audience/subject responses to these representations, and interrogates women's identities and representations in terms of Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. Women who have experienced chemotherapy-induced alopec ia were interviewed in this regard. Other contributive feminist, cultural and/or media studies works, such as those by Suzanna Walters, Susan Bordo, Naomi Wolf, Donna Haraway, Stuart Hall, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Judith Butler, help facilitate the analysis. From these perspectives, a historical analysis takes into consideration the symbolic dimension of hair, especially women's head hair, within Western cultural history, particularly in France and a multicultural America. In addition, a textual analysis looks at women, cancer, and hair loss as represented in popular culture characters and personalities. The study insists on the necessity for women to resist to the culture industries and deconstruct the male gaze, as well as the female gaze, which can both contribute to, and perpetuate women's objectification.
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Date Issued
2015
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004502, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004502
Subject Headings
Baldness -- Psychological aspects, Body image, Cancer -- Psychosomatic aspects, Cancer -- Treatment -- Complications, Feminine beauty (Aesthetics), Identity (Psychology), Self esteem in women
Format
Document (PDF)